ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



ing without and within. Little wonder our fathers 

 had to invent a Devil, or a hierarchy of good and 

 evil spirits contending with one another, to explain 

 the enigmas of life! But that the good spirits have 

 prevailed over their enemies, that the Natural 

 Providence has been on our side, is, as I have 

 pointed out, proved by the fact that we are actu- 

 ally here, and that life is good to us. 



The evil of the world is seen to be ingrained in the 

 nature of things, and it has been a spur to develop- 

 ment. All the great human evils have been dis- 

 ciplinary. There is always a surplusage, rarely just 

 enough and no more. The gods of life rarely make a 

 clean, neat job of it; there are needless pains, need- 

 less wastes, needless failures, needless delays. The 

 good of war — the fortitude, the self-denial, the 

 heroism — we cannot separate from the evil; the 

 good of avarice or greed — industry, thrift, fore- 

 sight — we cannot separate from the evil. The 

 wealth-gatherers keep the currents going, they sub- 

 due the wilderness, they reclaim the deserts, they 

 develop the earth's resources, they extend the 

 boundaries of civilization, but the evils that follow 

 in their train are many and great. Yet how are we to 

 have the one without the other? Disease is also a 

 kind of trial by battle; it weeds out the weak, the 

 physically unfit, and hardens and toughens the 

 race. 



The Natural Providence does not study economy, 



62 



